Elysee Nouvet
Co-Investigator
Elysée Nouvet is a medical anthropologist whose work is united by commitment to bringing the lived experiences of those on the receiving end of initiatives developed in the name of health equity and humanity to bear on understandings and assessments of the value, limits, and impacts of those initiatives.
Her doctoral work (2011, York University) focused on the social determinants, expression, and impacts of pain and distress in a Nicaraguan shanty. Since then, she has developed and co-led research on perceptions and moral experiences of healthcare and research in public health emergencies, short-term medical missions, palliative care, and social services. Since 2018, most of her work has been developed in response to requests for collaboration and leadership from civil society, national, and inter-sectoral organizations. At the core of these more recent efforts are two main challenges: how to balance public health safety with cultural values and norms where doing so is not obvious? And, How to meaningfully engage and effectively co-design strategies in and for public health with affected populations, in ways that avoid tokenism and challenge entrenched power and knowledge recognition inequities?
Since her appointment at Western in 2017, professor Nouvet has held external grants as PI from the Wellcome Trust/Save the Children/DFID R2HC (Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises) program, the World Health Organization, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Wellcome Trust Discovery grants, and ELRHA (Enhanced Learning and Research in Humanitarian Action), as well as funding as co-investigator on additional Social Sciences Research Council of Canada and CIHR projects. She is currently co-PI on a 5-year Global Health Solidarity project funded by a Wellcome Trust Discovery grant and co-PI on the Operationalizing Equity in Global Health Research project funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.